Iran's Ahmadinejad calls for new order

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a speech Wednesday before the U.N. General Assembly, called for a new world order in which all people are respected.

Ahmadinejad toned down his attacks on Israel and the United States, instead focusing on what he called "a new world order" that would "revive human dignity and believes in universal happiness and perfection"

Concerning Israel, Ahmadinejad, in the last year of his presidency, said an "arms race and intimidation by nuclear weapons and weapons of mass-destruction by the hegemonic powers have become prevalent" and threats by "uncivilized Zionists" to use military action against Iran is "a clear example of this bitter reality."

The Iranian leader was referring to Israeli officials saying suspected nuclear facilities in Iran should be attacked militarily.

Demonstrators, some carrying Syrian flags, gathered outside of the United Nations headquarters in New York to protest during Ahmadinejad's remarks. Iran is the main regional ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who been fighting since March 2011 pro-democracy forces seeking his ouster.

The U.S. delegation skipped Ahmadinejad's remarks, choosing not to enter the chamber and then walking out as it has done when the Iranian president spoke previously, CNN reported.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. delegation said Ahmadinejad isn't using his address to the U.N. General Assembly to address "legitimate aspirations" of the Iranian people, but to "spout paranoid theories and repulsive slurs against Israel."

Ahmadinejad was elected Iran's president in 2005 and re-elected in a controversial 2009 election. When his term ends in August 2013, he is not eligible to run for another term under Iran's constitution.

He also accused Western leaders -- calling them "capitalist nations" -- of intimidating other countries and the United Nations itself.

"No one feels secure or safe," Ahmadinejad said through an interpreter.

"I do not believe Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindu and Buddhists have any problems among themselves," he said. "They get along together confidently ... and live together amicably."

He blamed the current "abysmal situation" in the world on "wrong management and self-proclaimed centers of power."

He said a small group of nations was preventing the United Nations from truly representing the entire world.

The United Nations was "created to expand justice," but has been "engulfed by discrimination," he said.

Restructuring the United Nations is a "very vital" a goal that hasn't been accomplished, he said.

Referring to the United States, Ahmadinejad asked if the well-monied presidential campaigns "have the interest of people of world at heart. ... Money that goes [toward campaigns] is usually nothing but an investment. The will of masses have least impact on those decisions ... ."

Saying the world was at "a historic juncture," the Iranian president said, "Capitalism is bogged down in a self-made quagmire" and hasn't and hasn't developed worthwhile solutions on the global economy or cultural issues.

Ahmadinejad's vision of the "new order" is one in that is founded on trust and kindness and one in which "rulers must love people."

It would be a "just and fair order in which everybody is equal before law and in which there is no double standard."

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